Thank you for your kind reviews Ahsoka1996 and MS-CT 782. I've enjoyed your commando story very much Ahsoka1996, and I've been a long time fan of your work, MS CT 782 ;)

This one is a bit sad. Just a heads up! Hope you all like it, though.

The fact that Lt. Shard wasn't a very big fan of civvies, and non-clone officers for that matter, was fairly common knowledge. At least, among his men and brothers. He wasn't necessarily opposed to fighting for them, or following their orders, and he'd willingly lay down his life for any of them if necessary. He just didn't like them.

Although perhaps not the kindest or unbiased view, his experience and knowledge of them was that they were unorganized, panicky, self-serving and lacked the basic forethought to perform even the most minute military measures appropriately.

So, when word came in that a civilian vessel in orbit needed emergency evacuation measures, and their team was to be dispatched and headed by Captain Taro, an officer straight out of the academy, Lt. Sharp's squad all knew he was rolling his eyes behind his helmet as they headed out. Hard.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It wasn't too uncommon of an occurrence on such a heavily populated planet as Coruscant. Mid-air collisions between aircraft (civilian and military alike) with unregistered vessels happened more often than everyone liked. And there seemed to be no real way of preventing them.

Shard and his squad followed Taro into the shuttle with the expectation that not everyone aboard would be alive or able to be saved. A rogue craft had collided with the transport shuttle during lift-off and knocked out navigation and life support. And to to have done that, the impact must've been one of great force. Anyone in proximity or not secured was lost, they knew.

But, someone had made the emergency call, so someone was alive to be saved. And if the rescue party had their way of it, they would be.

"Anyone uninjured, move into the response vessel quickly!" Captain Taro called over the cries and moans and sobs that were the voices of the fear and panic and loss that hung in the air.

Shard and his men were intermittently helping people from one vessel to the other and checking on the injured, keeping a steady stream of movement between them. Time was of the essence here, as the loading bay had been rigged to hold against the vacuum of the darkness beyond, but it was anyone's guess how long it could last. The vessel was so old and shoddy only a complete overhaul could fix the damage now, and they had neither the time nor the means to do so.

Net, a rookie to the team, but a promising medic made quick work of bandaging up and stabilizing who he could about the cabin. Whenever he deemed a patient ready to be moved he gave a thumbs up to the trooper at his side, moving onto the next as the previous was carried away.

He finished splinting and wrapping the leg of an unconscious woman with a young child who watched his movements from Taro's lap at her side. He gave a thumbs up to Speeder who scooped the woman up and carried her quickly to the other craft. Taro stood up and held out the little girl to the next available man, who happened to be Shard.

Perhaps it was the way Shard took her, balancing her between his outstretched hands as though she were as fragile as glass and maintaining as much distance as possible as though she were an explosive device. Or maybe it was the severity and sadness of the situation that merely made everyone nervy. But Taro laughed out loud.

Shard froze and looked at the captain warily behind his visor while maneuvering out of the way of the tiny flailing arms that seemed to want to latch on to him.

"She's not contagious, Lieutenant."

"Yes Sir," Shard admitted, although it looked like he wasn't entirely sure of the truth of those words. He shot a glare at Net who chuckled at the exchange. The medic was working on the last patient, an older man who had suffered a head wound from the seating tray in front of him during impact.

Shard felt himself prickle at the noobie officer for poking fun at him as he made his way across the cabin. What did he know about civvies? Or kids for that matter? He wasn't trained to babysit. That kid of an officer (although technically much older than Shard) had no idea of the things he and his men were capable of doing. Had done. Things Taro would likely never experience or know how to handle. Given any real challenge or danger, the kid'd probably panic and worry only about himself just like any other non-clone officer. Shard snorted as he stepped into the temporary passage between the vessels, trying to keep a grip on the wiggling and flailing being in his grasp. Steel jogged past him, back into the damaged vessel to help Net and Taro with the last man.

The child in his arms was beginning to kick ferociously and Shard was glad that he had picked her up facing the way she was. He gave the door a light kick with his boot and as soon as it opened, handed her to the closest person on the other side before sealing the door once more. He heading back down the passage just as Net and Taro and Steel entered, carrying the man between them.

A sharp shudder reverberated beneath their feet suddenly and everyone froze.

One brief and agonizing moment passed as they all shared the same look of realization and terror. Then Taro made a break for the doorway of the damaged craft, and Shard only had enough time to think that the captain must've forgotten it was unsealable, that they had had to cut their way through forcefully to enter it, in his panic, before there was a terrible crack.

"Magnetics!" Taro's voice rang out. He slammed a fist against the side panel, activating it. Shard and his men obeyed instinctually, locking down their suits to the floor. And then there was a roaring engulfing them, and a furious wind which pulled fiercely at their suits and the corridor around them. It ripped the man from Net and Steel's grasp and they all could do nothing but watch in frozen horror as he and Taro were sucked into the abyss.

The panels of the corridor were stripped away one by one around them and they crouched, struggling against the buffeting of wind and debris sailing past them. There wasn't much else they could do, although their eyes instinctually fixed on the sealed door at the other end of the passage. But, even if they could struggle their way to it without being swept away, opening it would be death to those on the other side.

Shard looked back at his men. They were crouched as well, trying to make themselves as small as possible against the onslaught. They stared back at him, and Net gave him a shaky thumbs up. Steel snorted over the comms, and Shard found himself chuckling. Which was absurd. They were dead men. The situation was bleak. And yet, something made him laugh.

He thought of Taro then, reminded of the young officer's merriment during a grim situation. It was a small comfort now, but Shard found himself glad that the captain had been able to laugh, even if it had been at him, before he died. And he felt a twinge of guilt and realization he would never have considered possible. He had been wrong about the young officer. Dead wrong. In the heat of the moment, he had saved their lives. When it had come down to it, he had been the one who had reacted first.

Even if they weren't going to make it.

Even though it hadn't made a difference in the end. He had tried. Shard found himself reconsidering what he had assumed was true about everyone else, and about himself. he smiled again, wondering morbidly if everyone had the same introspection before they died.

"Sir!"

Shard snapped his head up and looked back over his shoulder again. Steel was motioning towards the raging opening behind them. As debris had been pulled free and through it, the maw of it had become smaller, torn panels piling up around it. Shard looked around quickly. The exterior panels of the corridor were still intact, and some of the interior ones remained. Maybe, just maybe...

He tested out his maneuverability against the vacuuming torrent. It was still a pain in the shebs but he could move a little. If they could just knock a big enough piece free. From the motions of their heads, Net and Steel had come to the same conclusion.

"The moment your blasters won't be pulled from your hands, ladies, shoot at anything not vital to the structure of this corridor," Shard ordered, already eyeing a loose panel that was trembling violently and beginning to curl at the edges.

Within a minute it was careening towards the opening and then caught at an angle across. Shard unholstered the pistol at his side and gripped it with both hands to prevent it flying from his grasp. He began firing at a large panel coming loose to his left, making sure to pick one that was behind his men, lest it go sailing into them. It came free in a shower of sparks and stopped up the opening a little bit more. Doing so lessened the tug on the others enough that they too unleashed a volley of bolts at their own panels.

His focus on the task as so great that Shard had no idea how long it took to complete it, but the second the howling was stemmed and they were able to run, they did. They burst through the doorway to the rescue craft amid a sea of incredulous civilians and relieved comrades,sealing off the corridor behind them. For long moments they merely sat in silence, chests heaving with adrenalin and disbelief, perhaps wary of breaking the spell of such incredible luck.

But then they were engulfed by the crowd around them, troopers and civvies alike. And it didn't go unnoticed by Shard's men that he didn't flinch or cringe as the civilians crowded around the three, wrapping their arms around the men who had saved their lives and almost paid the ultimate price.